Morning all,
Yesterday flew to London Heathrow from Durham Tees Valley and returned on the same day, here's how the day unfolded:
06:30, arrived at airport, checked in at the very user-friendly bmi self-service check-in machines, checked in for the return flight as well which made the day a lot easier. When we went through to Gate 2, on the apron was Thomsonfly Boeing 737-800 G-CDZI, bmibaby Boeing 737-300's G-TOYB/F and of course, my ride, bmi Airbus A319 G-DBCF.
When we boarded the aircraft the interior was very modern and new and seats were comfy with ample leg room. Sat in seat 21F, I looked out of the window to see the ground crew removing the baggage conveyor belt, only to return it a few minutes later to put more bags on (damn they were slow!). We were scheduled to leave at 07:55 but it was 08:10 when we finally got airbourne.
Take-off is not my favourite part of any flight, so I was a little tense, but once we got to about 10,000ft I was fine. Prior to this however, just after departure, I spotted my village and my house, I never would have though if it wasn't for the farm across the road from me! They built a new cattle milking parlour or something and the sun reflected from its roof. Shortly after passing Barton I also spotted my dads work place, another farm, (the largest pig farm in the country, not that I like to brag!
) where I new he'd be watching for my flight! (and he had seen it!)
We got to our cruising altitude of FL270 and from that point it was pretty uneventful, passed loads of disused military airfields, as well as an airport which was next to a huge river mouth, probably Blackpool, Liverpool or Cardiff (I'd be grateful if someone could ID it for me). We started our decent and in no time we were over the city of London, and before long we could see Buck House, Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Hayde Park and Tower Bridge, never saw the Millenium Dome or LCY unfortunately, but still a breathtaking approach! We only had to circle once before Heathrow let us in, and after passing all the famous landmarks, I made visual contact with Heathrow on the right hand side of the aircraft.
Whilst turning to line up with the runway, a Boeing 747-400 (looked like United Airlines old colours) shot in front of us, we were probably two behind it and it was the only other aircraft I saw during the flight. The landing was very interesting indeed! It was the smoothest I've ever experienced but the right main landing gear touched down before the left and thanks to a cross wind the aircraft landed at an angle to the runway, which was corrected quite easily. We taxied to the gate and stopped for about 8-10 minutes, the pilot came on the intercom and explained that for some reason we'd be put on an international stand so we had to wait for two other aircraft (A BA A319 and a bmi A319) to get the hell out of the way!
Because of parking at an international stand we had to disembark onto buses rather than through a walkway and straight into the terminal, but it was fun. That's all really, I just took one photo during the flight so I will upload it as soon as I can.
As for the return leg, very basic, take-off was similar to the landing, cross wind was forcing the aircraft to swerve down the runway! Quite scary at one point! The rest of the flight wasn't too interesting so I won't go into detail, the landing was fine and we returned to Durham Tees Valley to find the same aircraft parked up as what was in on the morning! We landed at 21:00, 10 minutes late. Oh, and the return flight was operated by bmi A319 G-DBCA.
Good points:
-Pilot was VERY informative, kept everyone up to speed with what was happening on both flights.
-Excellent aircraft, both interior and exterior!
Bad Points:
-Not a single TV on either A319!
-Poor safety briefings.
-Cabin crew uniform should have been made from silk rather than cotton.
Although there are more bad than good points, the good points well out-weighed the bad!
Regards,
Chris Smith
Yesterday flew to London Heathrow from Durham Tees Valley and returned on the same day, here's how the day unfolded:
06:30, arrived at airport, checked in at the very user-friendly bmi self-service check-in machines, checked in for the return flight as well which made the day a lot easier. When we went through to Gate 2, on the apron was Thomsonfly Boeing 737-800 G-CDZI, bmibaby Boeing 737-300's G-TOYB/F and of course, my ride, bmi Airbus A319 G-DBCF.
When we boarded the aircraft the interior was very modern and new and seats were comfy with ample leg room. Sat in seat 21F, I looked out of the window to see the ground crew removing the baggage conveyor belt, only to return it a few minutes later to put more bags on (damn they were slow!). We were scheduled to leave at 07:55 but it was 08:10 when we finally got airbourne.
Take-off is not my favourite part of any flight, so I was a little tense, but once we got to about 10,000ft I was fine. Prior to this however, just after departure, I spotted my village and my house, I never would have though if it wasn't for the farm across the road from me! They built a new cattle milking parlour or something and the sun reflected from its roof. Shortly after passing Barton I also spotted my dads work place, another farm, (the largest pig farm in the country, not that I like to brag!

We got to our cruising altitude of FL270 and from that point it was pretty uneventful, passed loads of disused military airfields, as well as an airport which was next to a huge river mouth, probably Blackpool, Liverpool or Cardiff (I'd be grateful if someone could ID it for me). We started our decent and in no time we were over the city of London, and before long we could see Buck House, Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Hayde Park and Tower Bridge, never saw the Millenium Dome or LCY unfortunately, but still a breathtaking approach! We only had to circle once before Heathrow let us in, and after passing all the famous landmarks, I made visual contact with Heathrow on the right hand side of the aircraft.
Whilst turning to line up with the runway, a Boeing 747-400 (looked like United Airlines old colours) shot in front of us, we were probably two behind it and it was the only other aircraft I saw during the flight. The landing was very interesting indeed! It was the smoothest I've ever experienced but the right main landing gear touched down before the left and thanks to a cross wind the aircraft landed at an angle to the runway, which was corrected quite easily. We taxied to the gate and stopped for about 8-10 minutes, the pilot came on the intercom and explained that for some reason we'd be put on an international stand so we had to wait for two other aircraft (A BA A319 and a bmi A319) to get the hell out of the way!
Because of parking at an international stand we had to disembark onto buses rather than through a walkway and straight into the terminal, but it was fun. That's all really, I just took one photo during the flight so I will upload it as soon as I can.
As for the return leg, very basic, take-off was similar to the landing, cross wind was forcing the aircraft to swerve down the runway! Quite scary at one point! The rest of the flight wasn't too interesting so I won't go into detail, the landing was fine and we returned to Durham Tees Valley to find the same aircraft parked up as what was in on the morning! We landed at 21:00, 10 minutes late. Oh, and the return flight was operated by bmi A319 G-DBCA.
Good points:
-Pilot was VERY informative, kept everyone up to speed with what was happening on both flights.
-Excellent aircraft, both interior and exterior!
Bad Points:
-Not a single TV on either A319!
-Poor safety briefings.
-Cabin crew uniform should have been made from silk rather than cotton.
Although there are more bad than good points, the good points well out-weighed the bad!
Regards,
Chris Smith
Comment